Angel

As the episode begins, Angel and the Gang are having a Chinese food picnic at night out in the hills, away from Wolfram & Hart. They want to be able to talk freely. It’s been a month since they got there. Angel still wants to know why the Senior Partners turned the LA branch over to them. Problem is, everyone is so busy running the company, they don’t actually have time to work on figuring this out. They’re also concerned about what may have happened when Gunn let W&H tinker with his brain, even though Gunn says he’s okay. And they have the additional distraction of Spike.

As they’re talking, Angel abruptly asks Wesley if he can borrow his (silver) pen which he got from the senior partners. He takes off, the others staring in confusion, and then a scream is heard. A young woman, Nina is running from a werewolf. The werewolf is about to bite her when Angel wrestles him off. He is able to stab him with Wesleys pen, killing it and causing it to revert to its human form.

He looks around, but the woman is gone.

Back at W&H, Angel is orchestrating an all-out search for the woman. He smelled her blood on the werewolf, so he knows she was bitten. The have to find her by nightfall, because it’s the second night of the full moon. He sends people out onto the street with sketches of her ; the W&H psychics are working with traces of her blood to try to locate her ; the staff cryptozoologist, Dr. Royce, has IDed the type of werewolf they’re dealing with from the body of the man Angel killed.

Spike is also their and sniping at their rescue efforts, irritating everyone.

Nina (the woman got bitten), is back at home, she is feeling very weird and out of sorts. Her sister and niece are there ; Nina is supposed to be watching her niece, Amanda, while her sister Jill works the late shift. To Nina, everything seems off.

The light is too bright ; noises are too loud, and she’s getting visions of a hairy paw slashing her sister’s throat.

At W&H, luck is changing for the better. They found tire treads, and it’s an older model. Someone recognized the girl in the sketch and has placed her in East Hollywood.

And then Lorne realizes that someone who’s just been spooked by a werewolf wasn’t likely to be paying much attention to traffic signals. Since W&H is networked into the traffic system, they are able to find her car and its license plate — and thus her address.

Nina is posing while her niece draws, when she suddenly starts feeling ill and staggers to her bedroom. She begins to change. Amanda is calling to her, to see if she is alright, when Angel shows up at her window. Werewolf ! Nina charges Angel, and both fall through the window, so by the time Amanda has entered the room, Nina is gone. Outside, Wesley tranks the werewolf.

Nina awakes naked in a small cell at W&H, a pile of clothes nearby. She quickly dresses, totally freaked out. Angel comes in and tells her she’s safe. She panics and tries to run past him, but he grabs her. Angel takes her to his office and shows her a video of her transformation from werewolf into Nina. He explains that the bite from the other werewolf has transformed her.

Angel suggests that she may have felt some of the effects, and she realizes with horror that she had wanted to rip out her sister’s throat. Angel reassures her that it wasn’t her — it was the monster inside. He tells her that he’s also got a monster inside, but that he can control it. And she can learn how to control her monster too.

Spike is still making snide remarks about how it’s a waste of time and effort — sooner or later, the girl will escape her cage and kill — and then be wracked with guilt the rest of the time. He and Angel are arguing when Spike suddenly disappears.

Dr. Royce explains that the first few transformations are especially difficult, and it helps to have some familiar items on hand. So Fred escorts Nina back to her place to get a few things. When they arrive, Nina’s sister Jill tears into her for terrifying Amanda and leaving her alone. Fred argues that it is all her fault, she has loosen her boyfreind. Nina tells Jill to get another babysitter ; she can’t be counted on anymore.

As Nina and Fred are leaving, they are attacked. Fred is knocked out, and Nina is kidnapped. On of the kidnapper calls his boss and tells him they got everything for dinner.

Back at W&H, Lorne starts reading the auras of everyone remotely connected with the matter, since it looks like an inside job. Royce, whom Lorne declared *clean*, is discussing possible suspects with the group when Fred sees Spike, who had been missing since his earlier disappearance.

He looks particularly ghostly and dazed, and Fred, concerned, goes after him. She calls him, but he doesn’t respond. He just keeps walking through walls, while Fred chases after him. She trips over a trash can and finds a tell-tale vial in Dr. Royce’s trash. When the Doctor shows up, she knocks him out.

Angel starts interrogating Royce — and not nicely — about Nina’s whereabouts. The vial contained calendula, which enabled Royce to prevent Lorne from accurately reading him. Royce babbles to Angel that this guy — the one who took Nina — is scarier than Angel. Angel decides to prove him wrong. As Royce screams in the background, Fred, Wesley and Gunn are going through his office. They find a secret compartment.

They run into Angel on their way back. Angel tells them he knows where Nina is. Fred tells Angel they know what is planned for Nina. She hands him a menu.

Angel and the gang show up, escorted by Royce. The gang attacks and Angel starts to free Nina. She protests that he might as well let them eat her, but he tells her not to give up.

Crane’s bodyguards get into the act, and it’s something of a standoff. Until Werewolf !Nina breaks free and attacks one of the women. Wesley is able to trank her, but Crane is still not ready to let them leave.

He promised his guests a werewolf, and they have paid extravagantly for the privilege. As they argue, Werewolf ! Nina bites Royce, who was near her. Wesley tranks her again. Angel, realizing what just happened, tells Crane that in a month he’ll have his werewolf. Crane finds that acceptable, and his men drag a screaming Dr. Royce out.

Meanwhile, back at W&H, Fred discovers a still- transparent Spike in her office. She tells him she’s been worried about him — where does he go when he’s not there ? He’s not sure, but thinks it’s the last step before hell. He asks her not to tell Angel. She promises that she will help him, find a way to restore him. As they speak, he gradually becomes more solid again.

Angel drives Nina back home. She’s safe again till the next full moon. As they watch Jill and Amanda, she wonders how Angel handles it, knowing he’s killed. Doesn’t he ever want to run off and disappear ? He says if you leave those you care about, the monster wins. They arrange for Nina to come back to W&H next full moon.

Back at W&H, the Gang is oohing and aahing over the view from Angel’s penthouse apartment. It’s the first time he’s invited them up to hang. Gunn asks him if he thinks he’s got a chance with werewolf girl. Angel indicates he just might.